Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow

Despite the uninspiring architecture, St Regis proved a comfortable stay.

Botero’s trademark sculptures decorated the hotel.

Tips for Staycations: During off-peak seasons, hotels are usually less than 80% occupied and so they will release rooms cheaply at the last minute. If you can afford to wait, book the room within a week or so of your intended staycation. Yeah, live life dangerously.

Quick check-in

Hotel lobby

Usually S$900++ to $15000++ for a room at St Regis, we got a grand deluxe room for $360++ (or $424) because we booked online only 3 days in advance.

Room: After a swift check-in, our room, spacious on all counts (50-52m²), on the 15th storey had two oversized single beds and a splendid garden view, you wouldn’t suspect that Orchard could have such a view. The windows are reflective so you can see outside but people cannot look in. Great for exhibitionists. Despite the plain architecture of the building, the room is decorated in a classical style, rather grand.

A room with a view

The toilet is huge: two sinks, a bathtub with a tv in front, a standing shower with a rainshower and three jets shooting at your chest or back, and a toilet in a cubicle. The toilet is very convenient because someone could be showering and another person could use the sink at the same time without much loss in privacy. I usually don’t take anything back from hotels but this time, I felt like taking the shower gel because it was lavender and had micro scrub beads.  All in all, the room was luxurious and we were satisfied.

Amazingly huge toilet

Service: Every room comes with a personal butler, which we thought was just a fancy name for room service, available to us 24 hours a day. When we first entered, a butler, Eugene, was there to teach us the functions of the room. The butlers were impeccable, a balance of affability and good service. But besides the butlers, the other service staff needed more training. For instance, a service staff entered the room using his own access card after pressing the doorbell as I was walking to open the door for him. What if he walked in while I was doing something private? A scenario fit for porn which I never ever watched ‘coz I am an obedient Singaporean. I was treated like a prince at Ritz-Carlton, like a friend at Shangri La’s Rasa Sentosa, but at St Regis, I was merely a paying customer. Service was not bad, just not as outstanding as Ritz or Rasa Sentosa.

Amenities: Hey, if you’re too lazy to iron your own clothes, St Regis provides 6 complimentary pressings. (Chiobu had them iron her red pants.)
-Free coffee and tea from the butler 24 hours a day.
-DVD library
-24-hour Gym
-Pool
-Indoor tennis court at $60/hr or $100 for 2 hours.
-10 minutes’ walk to Orchard MRT, with shopping malls and plenty of food nearby.
One thing I find lacking is that you have to pay for wifi in rooms. Come on, almost all hotels, even the cheapest, in Taiwan have free wifi. And Singapore is more developed than Taiwan, surely Singapore hotels can provide free wifi.

The palatial Brasserie Les Saveurs for complimentary breakfast

Food: There are three restaurants, Yan Ting (Chinese), LaBrezza (Italian) and Brasserie Les Saveurs (French) and two bars, Decanter (for wines) and Astor Bar. There is no longer a choice between LaBrezza and Brasserie Les Saveurs (BLS) for the complimentary breakfast: breakfast is now held solely at BLS. No complaints here as BLS is beautiful. While the breakfast wasn’t extensive, just eggs, waffles, sausages, bacon, toast, cheese, an Indian food section, a Chinese food section, and fruits, the food was of an above average standard. Most of the food was light, not greasy, lightly flavored, not bland. Compliments to the chef in charge.

Eggs benedict: I prefer eggs royale, which instead of bacon, smoked salmon is used. Luckily there was smoked salmon available and I could customize my own poached eggs and muffin. Beautifully poached egg.

Personalizing the fried rice, I added bacon to it.

Cheese oozing out of omelette.

So natural! Honey dripped from a honeycomb, collected in a bowl.

Verdict: We like that the hotel is centrally located–so, so convenient–and when we needed anything, we went down to buy from the nearby shops. The room is spacious, the bed was comfortable. When Huccalily came to visit Chiobu and me, she said, “The room is a blackhole, so comfortable. I’d better go now, if not I’ll never leave.” Welcome to Hotel California.

St Regis Singapore

29 Tanglin Road
Singapore 247911
T: 6506 6888

Written by A. Nathanael Ho.